The Irish standard., 1887-04-02
SMALLPOX PREVENTION.

SMALLPOX PREVENTION.
Vaccination tho Chief Relience Against
the Inroads of tho Dread Disease.
The interest that attaches to every
means that can be used for the pre-
vention of smallpox can never be
diminished. lis true that in the alb
sence of the disease there may be many
suggestions as to defects in its preven-
ton. But once let the dread dist gurer
and destroyer invade community, and
ere long there is sure to be an adoption
of some of the means of prevention.
As to it we are never to lose sight of
the Importance of isolation and disin-
lection. 1t is true that for the person
protected by incubation or vaccination
this is not 50 important for his own
safety. But inasmuch as part of the
people will be found unprotected, it is
very important that these other means
are not lost sight of. Some curious
facts have recently come to light as to
the city of Leicester, in England,
where it has been claimed that the
anti-vaccinationists have been able to
prevent epidemics of smallpox with
out resort to vaccination. 1t was first
found that those serving as nurses, or
who were allowed to come in contact
with patients, were always those who
had recovered from the disease or had
been vaccinated. AS to the others,
they did not contract the disease be-
cause of the precise methods of isolation
and disinfection. While our reliance
should not be upon these, yet we are
to avail ourselves of all the advantages
which they afford.
But our chief reliance must be on the
great prevention afforded by the dis
covery of Jenner. Never has method
of treatment been subjected to so Sc
we're tests. They began at time when
incubation had established for Itself
some advantages, and when the plea
that it was the transfer of bovine
disease to mankind had more appeal to
the superstitions of the people than
now. In the work done by Pasteur,
Powers and Klein, and in the varied re-
lations which have been established
between diseases of man and the lower
animals, we have come to know that at
least sixty diseases need to be studied
in their comparative relations. The
only one point which really needed
testimony and experience was whether
vaccination is comparatively harm
less method, and whether it really, as
a rule, prevents the smallpox. We
might rest the proof alone upon the
fact that not one of thousand of those
who have been educated in the healing
art has any doubt on this subject. We
know that there is no contagious
disease so apt to be taken by all
directly exposed to it. We also know
that of those who are certified to have
been properly vaccinated not one
in thousand will take the disease
within year after they have been
operated upon. If the fact seems to be
shown that the protection has for
some persons some limits as to time,
we then only need to know what these
limits are, and to repeat the mode OF
protection. The last few years have
added some very important informa-
ton, and never has it been so possible
as now to secure skillful and complete
protection against smallpox. Some
still cling to the use of the Jennariean
lymph, as it is called, and prove that it
has lost none of its power of protection.
In this country DR.. Snow, the veteran
health officer of Providence, r. L, has
always secured line of this lymph,
and uses it with admirable success.
The one argument that has been relied
upon against it is, that the lymph is
capable of transmitting the disease Of
one person to another. It is signif.
cant fact that amid the millions Of
vaccinations that have taken place
since the time of Jenner, scarcely a
score of such cases can be shown, and
even these are not likely to have hap.
pened from the lymph itself, but from
blood and septic material inserted at
the same time. These possible cases
are poor Offset against the tens Of
thousands of lives that have been saved,
Now, however, that for several years
past the feasibility of procuring the
lymph direct from bovine incubation
has been proven, we no longer need to
be disturbed about the transmissal OF
disease from one person to another